Iraqi Voices to Read: A List by Maktaba’s Sundus Abdul Hadi
Words by Sundus Abdul Hadi
The first written words were discovered in Uruk, home of the world’s first known city, in modern day Iraq. The clay onto which the cuneiform was impressed was preserved for thousands of years, through burial, burning and looting. I grew up with tales of Beit el Hikma and images of the book-lined Al Mutanabbi street reflecting Iraq’s global impact through literature and knowledge production. I also grew up with stories about Hulago turning the waters of Dijla blue with ink in 1258 AD, entire libraries burning down with every conquest and invasion over the centuries, and suicide bombings on paper-filled streets. My love for books and for Iraq are one and the same.
While there are countless books written about Iraq by Americans, British and European authors, I wanted to cut through the imperialist, colonial and orientalist fantasies and go straight to the source. This list is designed to take you from Iraq’s ancient past, which very much informs the future — where the list ends. In its heart, I’ve spotlighted Iraq’s artistic and cultural achievements, our pioneers and visionaries, and our connection to land and story. Read on for a non-exhaustive list of 12 books about Iraq from my personal library to read, reference and return to.
THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH
Widely recognized to be one of the first written stories EVER, The Epic of Gilgamesh is a huge part of Iraq’s contribution to the history of humankind, traced back to the Ancient Sumerian civilization, the origin of writing, mythology and storytelling.
Via Maktaba
ART OF MESOPOTAMIA
by Zainab Bahrani
To quote Maya Angelou, “I have great respect for the past. If you don't know where you've come from, you don't know where you're going.” Sometimes its enough just to look at the images of objects and statues our ancestors made over 6,000 years ago. Best part of this book? It’s written by our very own Zainab Bahrani.
Via Maktaba
MODERN ARAB ART: THE FORMATION OF ARAB AESTHETICS
by Nada M. Shabout
This work deeply analyzes the impact of Iraq’s pioneering artists on the Modern Art movement(s) in the Arab world. To turn to the manifesto of the Baghdad Group for Modern Art from 1951: “The new generation of artists finds the beginning of a guiding light in the early legacy of their forefathers.” It couldn't be more relevant today.
Via Antoine
IRAQ: THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE
by N.Ramzi
How important it is to see how Iraqi’s pictured themselves, through their own lens, particularly with our fraught history with colonialism, orientalists and American journalists. N. Ramzi is one of our very own, along with Latif Al Ani, who gave us images to see ourselves through.
Via Abe Books
PRINCESSES’ STREET
by Jabra Ibrahim Jabra
Jabra Ibrahim Jabra was a Palestinian from Bethlehem who moved to Baghdad in 1948. He was an instrumental character in the pioneering Modern Art Movement of Baghdad in the golden era of the 50’s and 60’s. This memoir spans the years he spent in Baghdad, teaching, writing, and walking its streets. Jabra I. Jabra perfectly illustrates the love and history connecting Iraq and Palestine.
Via Abe Books
A HERBAL OF IRAQ
by Shahina A. Ghazanfar & Chris J. Thorogood
A bilingual resource for fifty botanical and medicinal herbs found in Iraq and their uses in traditional plant-based medicine. This is top-tier ancestral knowledge, a return to the roots.
Via The Kew Shop
BAGHDAD 21ST CENTURY by Taghlib Al Waily
In this book, Iraqi architect and planner Taghlib Al Waily reviews the past, documents the present, and presents a vision for the future of Baghdad’s most precious heritage site: the historic city center. Full disclosure: He is my baba! Now you know where I get it from.
Via Academia
TAKE CARE OF YOUR SELF: THE ART AND CULTURES OF CARE AND LIBERATION
by Sundus Abdul Hadi
A book about care written by an Iraqi woman in the era of collective struggle and liberation spanning from the Black Panther Party to the October Revolution? Yes, please. I wrote it as a reminder to our future selves, to imagine new narratives and centring care in an unjust world.
Via Maktaba
A HOUSE WITH A DATE PALM WILL NEVER STARVE
by Michael Rakowitz
Part art-project, part recipe-book, this cookbook by Iraqi artist Michael Rakowitz features recipes by forty-one chefs that incorporate Dibis (date syrup) in new and classic dishes. That Maqluba recipe by Sara Leana Ahmad tho!
Via Maktaba
FRANKENSTEIN IN BAGHDAD
by Ahmed Saadawi
How important it is to weave storytelling out of the tragedy of war. Ahmed Saadawi uses magical realism and surrealism to make sense of the senseless in this era of our collective story.
Via Antoine
THE LIBRARIAN OF BASRA
by Jeanette Winter
This children’s book is written by a non-Iraqi - Jeanette Winter - but we’ll let it pass because its the very important true story of Alia Mohamed Baker, the librarian of Basra who saved tens of thousands of books from looting and destruction during the U.S.-led war in 2003.
Via Maktaba
IRAQ +100 by Hassan Blasim
This is Iraqi futurism at its finest (and first). This anthology features writing imagining Iraq 100 years post-invasion by ten Iraqi writers, spanning science fiction, speculative fiction, magical realism, fantasy and allegory.
Via MaktabaSundus Abdul Hadi is an Iraqi artist, author and curator. She is the co-founder of MAKTABA Bookshop in Montreal and of We Are The Medium.